This is the announcement for Cameron and Tommy Open (aka Tommy and Cameron Open), or CaTO/TaCO to be held on Sunday, August 9, 2009, the day after VCU Open on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus in Richmond, VA. As the name indicates, this is an open event entirely written by Maggie Walker student Tommy Casalaspi and myself. The current plan for difficulty is Regionals with the expansion common among summer open events.
EDIT: After hearing this year's ACF Regionals and Nationals, I will say that our projected difficulty is closer to the latter, but will aim for accessibility in bonuses (especially the middle parts, which we will actively attempt to make consistent) and in at least 3/4 of tossups (the idea here is not to overwhelm with canon expansion while not limiting the writers to stock answers).

In terms of eligibility, this is of course Open, but depending on numbers (say, at least 3 contenders), we are prepared to recognize the top team consisting only of high schoolers (defined as having been enrolled within the last year), as the original concept for this tournament was the completion of the analogy ICT/ACF Nationals: Chicago Open :: NSC/HSNCT: ______. Therefore, this will obviously be below the difficulty of CO (and VCU Open), but "superteams" are more than welcome.

We will tentatively (and likely) use the same fee structure as VCU Open, copied here for reference:
Base fee $100 per team
Buzzers: -$10 each (no limit)
Staffers: -$20 each (no limit)
Minimum fee: $0

To get a discount, buzzers must actually work for the purpose of a normal quizbowl game; that is, they must have eight working activators, a working control box, and either a working power cord or a fresh battery, as applicable. Don't waste everyone's time bringing broken buzzers to the tournament. That's actually worse than bringing no buzzers at all! Don't bring broken staffers either.

To register, post here or email me at the address below.

As the location and timing will be based on VCU's reservations, I have for now copied the information for VCU Open here:
LOCATION/DIRECTIONS/PARKING: The tournament will take place somewhere on our Monroe Park campus (aka "Academic Campus"). We will have more details once the room reservations come back.

TIMES: Registration will run from 8:45 to 9:00 AM, with the goal of starting Round 1 as soon as possible after 9:00.

The packets will be ACF format with a similar distribution (some notable differences include a near absence of Geography). Since we should have 15 packets ready for the tournament, format will be entirely dependent on number of teams.

Until we straighten out payment information, cash is our preference. If you need to make out a check now or soon, make it out to Cameron Orth and I will make sure it gets to the right people.

If you have any questions, comments or mirroring requests, post here or let me know at outhwest AT gmail DOT com

Since the field magically appeared over the last couple days, here is a tentative field that will (maybe) be updated:
Teams (buzzers):
Andy/Hannah/Rob/Bernadette
Carter/Rosenthal/Angelo/Chen
Taraila/Chrzanowski/Mehigan/Bollinger (1)
TJ "B"
Nathan/York +2
Cheyne/Guy/White (Evan?) +2

(Free) Agents:
Jerry
Carsten
George
Dan

People who will likely show up but haven't said anything:
Evan Adams
Will Butler
Matt Weiner

Staff that definitely won't play:
Cameron
Tommy

I'll try to update this regularly.
EDIT: Difficulty section of the original announcement has been updated. Also, I will announce that virtually all science clues will be coming from textbook knowledge of which advanced students are likely to have heard.

Put me down as a free agent. (Note: If I end up driving to Richmond that weekend instead of getting a ride, I will have to leave relatively early, no later than 5 or 6. If I do Amtrak, then I'm probably only in for the morning rounds, if I remember their schedule.)

Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough

Whatever you might say, I am going to assume that this tournament will in fact be harder than VCU Open itself.

Matt Weiner wrote:For various reasons, the difficulty for this tournament is now "between normal/Regionals and Nationals" rather than "CO level." Take that into account if you are writing a packet. The harder end of Cardinal Classic, Terrapin, etc is what I have in mind here.

Considering this tournament is supposed to be pretty close to Nationals in difficulty, Evan may end up being right. Wow.

Whatever you might say, I am going to assume that this tournament will in fact be harder than VCU Open itself.

Matt Weiner wrote:For various reasons, the difficulty for this tournament is now "between normal/Regionals and Nationals" rather than "CO level." Take that into account if you are writing a packet. The harder end of Cardinal Classic, Terrapin, etc is what I have in mind here.

Considering this tournament is supposed to be pretty close to Nationals in difficulty, Evan may end up being right. Wow.

Oy. Let's just do our best, Aidan. If it helps, Trey really has gotten good over the last couple months... he's our best hope on a lot of the impossible history questions here (yeah, he's better than me, probably, at least in terms of depth of knowledge, but as a history teacher i guess i have more breadth). We'll see what happens.

Oy. Let's just do our best, Aidan. If it helps, Trey really has gotten good over the last couple months... he's our best hope on a lot of the impossible history questions here (yeah, he's better than me, probably, at least in terms of depth of knowledge, but as a history teacher i guess i have more breadth). We'll see what happens.